Friday, November 28, 2008

Douglas Carswell MP for Harwich and Clacton had the keen sense to telephone the Speaker's office to find out if Mr Martin sanctioned the raid on the offices of Damian Green MP in the House of Commons yesterday. He says he was told "there is a process to be followed that was followed". Naturally and sensibly he takes that as a yes.

As he points out , the unprecendented raid by Anti-terror police on the Commons office of an opposition spokesman was not in Zimbabwe, or Pakistan.

However Gorbals Jimmy desperate to cover his arse may point to a transatlinc precedent in the US. FBI agents searched Rep. William Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building in May 2006 - the first time FBI agents have searched a lawmaker's Capitol Hill office.

They had however previously and famously turned up the previous August a stash of $90,000 in cash in the freezer at his Washington home.

Jefferson now faces a 16-count indictment due for court on December 2nd., including charges of bribery, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The charges relate to what the Justice Department refers to as schemes in which Jefferson allegedly agreed to help businesses obtain contracts in western Africa in return for payments to companies controlled by family members and, in one case, a staff member. The trial has however been deferred again.

Vince Gaskell, 56, head of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) who he admits ..." It must be remembered of course that CRB checks are also undertaken not only on directly on behalf of Public Sector organisations but also private companies and individuals through such bodies such as the Security Industry Authority -"Last year, for instance, we completed over 116,000 checks for the security industry." see an interview in 2007 to info4Security (see also, his interesting remarks about sharing data internationally).

Vince of course is the man carefully selected to join the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) board as a member and executive director for New Service Implementation to increase capability in the run up to the start of the National Identity Scheme.

Lord Patel's mole in the Home Office (most certainly not Peter Edmundson of Policing Policy & Operations Directorate Policing Powers & Protection Unit) tells us that it was this revelation which has caused enormous problems for the CRB - it was this revelation that has led to this preposterous raid involving up to 9 anti- terrorist officers at his home yesterday.

Lord Patel's mole at the Home Office says ... this is only the tip of the iceberg about the alleged "vetting" of security personnel for the Security Industry Authority - who of course employ many current serving and retired Plods.

Fascinating to see how organisations like Group 4 (Now trendily called G4S) who have such a close working relationship with the Home Office are and have been represented and employee 40,000 in the Uk alone and have a turnover of £1.2 billion.

When G4s merged earlier this year with Global Solutions Ltd (all shares of which were held by DeFacto 1119 Limited, which is a holding company created exclusively for thepurpose of holding the shares of GSL) it required EU approval and the review document (COMP/M.5036 7/3/08) is well worth a read - especially as ..."the parties are two of only three to six private firms currently providing these services under contract in Great Britain. In particular, the parties' combined market shares in value of the services that are being outsourced from private operators are [30-40] % and [45-55] % in relation to the operation of police custody suites and the provision of transportation of offenders and of immigrant/asylum applicants in Great Britain respectively.

One to watch - especially connections with the Isle of man, Guernsey and Jersey.

UPDATE from our favourite lawyer : Officers from the Met 's counter-terrorism unit, arrested Mr Green and searched his premises under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act procedures. As such (and to the confusion of some), the enquiry falls under the counter-terrorism commander's remit because there is a possibility that Green’s alleged source might be / could be / maybe / possibly could be charged with an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Special Branch has always had the responsibility for OSA cases since the very first such Act, passed in 1889.

In 2006, Special Branch was merged with the Met’s Anti-Terrorism Branch (which actually used be the investigative arm of Special Branch until it was separated off in 1972) to form a new Counter Terrorism Command."

LINK :'10,000 illegal immigrants' work in security - Daily Telegraph November 15th DT Copies of the August 2008 e-mails discussing how to handle the affair here ..." Press Office advise that should the media discover that a Home Office NDPB has issued thousands of licences to illegal workers and that some of those workers have been employed in high-profile security jobs there will be significant criticism of the Home Office and our processes." etc., etc.,

Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that Lord Patel is areligious and does not support or subscribe to the mix of myth, fantasy and faery stories that form the basis of belief in the world's major religions (and pretty well all the minor ones).

To describe someone in terms of their professed and publicly declared religious faith is a handy shorthand - vide Tony Blair and his use of "extreme Islamists".